$92,000.00 Freakin’ Dollars
I have been incommunicado for some time due to family commitments, beach house, etc. However, today I am perusing the Globe and see this….
Meantime, the well-known criminal defense firm of Good & Cormier told the Globe yesterday that Amorello has hired the criminal defense firm of Good & Cormier in an effort to fight Romney’s efforts to remove him as head of the quasi-independent transportation agency. The lawyer will be paid by the authority.
Philip G. Cormier said yesterday that the Turnpike Authority’s general counsel, Michael D. Powers, had called shortly after Romney said last Tuesday that he would take legal steps to remove Amorello as board chairman and chief executive officer.
The Turnpike Authority spokeswoman, Mariellen Burns, confirmed that the authority would pay the firm to represent Amorello. The firm represented him last year, when Romney asked the state Supreme Judicial Court whether he had the power to remove him from his chairmanship.
In a brief, another lawyer in the firm, Andrew Good, argued that the governor does not have legal authority to force him out. The Turnpike Authority paid Good & Cormier at least $92,000 to write the brief, according to records.
One brief!!! I am sure this brief is filled with legal mumbo jumbo and cites MGL (Mass. General Laws) and CMR’s (Code of Massachusetts Regulations), case law, precedent, etc. But $92,000.00 dollars!!!!!????
Amorello’s legal representation is easily going to run into the millions of dollars paid for by the quarters given by the toll payers of Massachusetts.
I’m going back to the beach.
Archived in: MassachusettsJuly 18, 2006 at 12:11 pm | Trackback
4 comments
Eighty hours, two work weeks, to write that Brief comes out to an hourly rate of $1,150.00. Nice work if you can get it.
Don’t have too much faith in the accuracy of the Globe’s reporting. If Amorello paid $92,000 for a brief, they should shoot him, not fire him.
Isn’t it true that the Legislature could easily give Romney the power to remove Amorello without all these legal proceedings. If yes, the public needs to be aware that the Democratic party is at fault for Amorello’s legal bills and the whole Big Dig fiasco.
“Isn’t it true that the Legislature could easily give Romney the power to remove Amorello without all these legal proceedings[?]”
Not necessarily. The Legislature could certainly alter the legal position of the Governor with respect to the Turnpike Authority by amending the Authority’s organic statute, but one could argue that only be effective going forward, not retrospective to cover someone already appointed. The basis for that argument would be that otherwise the Legislature would be both 1) impairing obligations of contract and 2) depriving a current officeholder of due process, both presumably in violation of both the federal and state constitutions. I know that at least under federal case law n the subject, officials of independent agencies who can only be fired for “cause” effectively have a vested proprietary right in their office.